Can't enter self-employment health insurance deduction

[rleath]

I'm using TT 2019 Home and Business.  I am self-employed.  I am trying to enter my self-employed health insurance deduction, but TT never allows me to enter the amount.

I go to the "Business  Income and Expenses" section of the step-by-step guide.

I scroll down to the "Less Common Business Situations", and click "Update" under "Self-employed Health Insurance".

I get a new page entitled "Self-Employed Health Insurance".  There is one choice: "Continue"  When I click it, I return to the previous page!

I tried going to "Forms", Schedule 1, Line 16, to enter directly, but TT won't allow an entry.

What am I doing wrong?  With TT 2018, I didn't have this problem.

Thanks for your help,

Richard

[DawnC · Accepted solution]

You are in the wrong spot.  For Schedule C, go to: 

• Business Expenses  
• Then to Other Common Business Expenses
• Then to Insurance Payments
• Then choose Health Insurance Premiums

for K-1, you will be asked after you enter the K-1.  

[rleath · Accepted solution]

That worked!  Thank you!

I didn't need to go to the Tax Forms last year.  I'll remember for 2020.

Richard

[DawnC]

Happy to help!  I believe they recently moved where that deduction is entered.  

[Nate V]

I had a terrible time with this last year and cannot get it to work this year.  I fortunately ran across a TurboTax community post with instructions on how to do it.  It was very weird, and I cannot remember how.

My K-1 has an amount in box 20 with code AH.  The attached statement has my 401(k) contribution deduction, my health insurance premiums that qualify for self-employed health insurance deduction, and a keogh contribution deduction.  I went through the K-1 screens in Turbo Tax and got to the screen where I entered the itemized AH information.  The comment on the screen says that I will have to enter the information elsewhere in TurboTax.  I cannot find where that is, and it is very clear that TurboTax is not deducting those amounts to get to my AGI.  Any advice on how to fix this?

[nathan1479]

I am also using TurboTax Home and Business, but I can't figure out why Schedule 1, Line 16, Self-Employed Health Insurance Deduction is showing a small non-zero number (5) when I believe it should be 0.

I entered my 1095-A information separately, and when I trace the "Health Insurance Premiums" under the Schedule C - Business Expenses section, the fields are all blanked out. When I switch to form mode, I see the value "5" for Line 16, but I can't edit it. In turn, I trace the value to Form 1040/1040SR Wks, Line 16 and see "5" again, but can't edit. If I drill down to the "Data Source", the explanation says:

"Schedule C (Dance Instruction & Entertainment) -- SE Health and LTC Insurance Dedn Wks SE Hlth & LTC Ins. ded 0.
Schedule F (Untitled) -- SE Health and LTC Insurance Dedn Wks SE Hlth & LTC Ins. ded
Sch K-1 Wks-Partnerships (Untitled) -- SE Health and LTC Insurance Dedn Wks SE Hlth & LTC Ins. ded
Sch K-1 Wks-S Corporations (Untitled) -- SE Health and LTC Insurance Dedn Wks SE Hlth & LTC Ins. ded

plus:
Any self-employed health insurance deduction attributable to premiums entered on Form 1095-A and linked to an activity. This adjustment, if any, will appear in a text field at the bottom of any Self-Employed Health Insurance Deduction Worksheet."

I *did* pay about $16 of health insurance premiums out of pocket toward my self-employed marketplace plan in 2019, but am getting a $16 Premium Tax Credit that I believe covers that. I'm assuming TurboTax is computing the $5 as the "adjustment".

Can someone clarify this calculation? Does it have something to do with my previous year taxes?

[BillM223]

"Does it have something to do with my previous year taxes?" - I doubt it.

"I *did* pay about $16 of health insurance premiums out of pocket toward my self-employed marketplace plan in 2019, but am getting a $16 Premium Tax Credit that I believe covers that." - if you received the Premium Tax Credit for the $16, then you didn't pay it "out of pocket". "Out of pocket" refers to any premiums that you paid that weren't covered by the PTC.

"I'm assuming TurboTax is computing the $5 as the "adjustment"" - Did you enter your 1095-A and immediately afterwards tell TurboTax that this is associated with a Schedule C? (this would be the right thing to do).

If so, my guess without being able to see your return is that there is a rounding error in the calculations on form 8962. You entered the numbers on the 1095-A with dollars and cents, right? TurboTax sometimes rounds numbers in an unpredictable way, such that the totals on the 8962 aren't exactly what you would think they should be. I.e., if TurboTax rounds each month to a dollar amount first and adds the months and then compares the result to the total (which is the original dollar and cents amount), the rounding error is evident.

Take a look at the 8962 carefully, compared to the 1095-A, and see if this is the case.

If so, don't worry about it, the IRS understands about rounding errors.

[nathan1479]

Thanks for the input. I checked Form 8962 and the 1095-A as entered in TurboTax. Yes, I did enter dollars and cents for the 1095-A, and yes, I believe I linked the 1095-A to my Schedule C  by checking the "I'm self-employed and bought a Marketplace plan" option.

When comparing Forms 8962 and 1095-A in TurboTax I see that the annual totals (which I understand TT rounds) are identical.

1095-A:

(Annual) enrollment premiums: 4495

(Annual) advance payment of PTC: 4479

8962

Line 24: Total premium tax credit: 4495

Line 25: Advance payment of PTC: 4479

So, I remain puzzled about where the $5 deduction/rounding error is coming from. I guess this is practice for my OCD brain. I went ahead and filed the return even with the small error, on the assumption that an extra $5 deduction was not going to swing my tax liability in any significant manner. Still, would be nice to know whether this is actually a rounding error, a TT bug that should be filed, or a mistake in my data entry somewhere.

[BillM223]

What I meant is that when you add the dollars and cents amounts for each month, you may not get the same total as is reported on the 8962, because each month may be rounded before being used.

Unfortunately, without seeing your return, it's just guesswork on my part.

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[nathan1479]

I hear you, and am aware of that too. But adding up the dollar and cents amounts to:

Actual sum of monthly amounts on 1095-A: 4495.44 and 4478.88

TT calculated sum: 4495 and 4479 (same value on 8962 and 1095-A)

Each of those rounding errors is < 1, so it's unclear why the rounding error would accumulate to 5.

If I decide to pursue this further, I'll take it up with the support options you mentioned (yes, I'm using Home and Business on desktop), and appreciate all the help from you so far.

Thanks!